Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — More than a week into the shutdown of the federal government, the state is
beginning to see scattered effects of that closing — and the longer the shutdown lasts, the worse
it will get, say those tracking the impact.

A report released yesterday by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based nonprofit research group,
said the shutdown has affected everything from tourism to the state’s safety net.

“What started as a catastrophe for federal workers and their families has spread to start to
impact communities, and it’s creeping into the labor market as people lose their services,” said
Wendy Patton, who wrote the report. “It’s a spiraling effect, and the longer it lasts, the worse it
hits people.”

Her report found effects as disparate as delayed infrastructure projects in northeastern Ohio to
a growing backlog of Federal Housing Administration loans. The state has more than 75,800 federal
employees, but about 43 percent are employed by the military, where most furloughs have already
been reversed.

Some effects have primarily been inconvenient. A spokeswoman for Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa
Township, said constituents have called to report that the government shutdown has delayed the
issuance of replacement Social Security cards. And it has kept the Internal Revenue Service from
issuing the necessary information that would allow some to buy or sell a house.

National parks and other federal lands in the state have been closed during a season when many
flock there to view changing leaves. Sunday’s Towpath Marathon at Cuyahoga Valley National Park was
rescheduled for Nov. 3 because the park is closed.

Some effects remain to be seen: On Tuesday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it
was furloughing 7,000 employees nationwide, but spokespeople for both U.S. senators from Ohio said
it was unclear how many work in Ohio. Veterans are still able to get care at hospitals, vet centers
and outpatient clinics, but it might be harder to get information about benefits and claim
status.

Patton said the impact may ultimately be more sweeping. Since Oct. 1 — the day the shutdown went
into effect — more than 6,000 Ohioans have filed for unemployment benefits in Ohio, including some
furloughed by the shutdown. Those furloughed workers, she said, will “experience a sudden fiscal
crisis in their own lives” and that will affect local communities.

State officials say the impact so far has been minimal. Ben Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio
Department of Job and Family Services, said most discretionary federal assistance — including cash,
food and food stamps — was sent out during the first 10 days of October.

Whether those benefits also will be sent in November is to be seen, he said.

But Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks,
said she worries that if the shutdown drags into next month, the impact could be seen through
federal nutrition programs including the school-lunch program and food stamps.

“November may not just be the beginning of the holiday season,” she said. “It will be a season
of widespread hunger, when 47 million Americans don’t have access to basic nutrition programs.”

Hamler-Fugitt said she worries that if the shutdown continues, federal workers and contractors
will be among those who need nutrition assistance.